A week after it was announced that Amy Pascalwould be stepping down as Sony’s co-chairman following the studio’s hacking saga, Pascal took part in a Women in the World conference on Wednesday in San Francisco. There, the executive reportedly poked fun at herself when she took the stage to speak with veteran journalist Tina Brown, deadpanning, “All the women here are doing incredible things in this world—all I did was get fired.”

Pascal gamely answered Brown’s questions about the recent hacking catastrophe, during which cyber-criminals leaked internal records belonging to the studios as well as unflattering e-mails Pascal herself had written. (The most publicized memos of which were Pascal’s exchanges with producer Scott Rudin, who called Angelina Jolie a “camp event” with a “rampaging spoiled ego,” among other choice terms.)

When Brown asked about that particular e-mail exchange, Pascal explained, “[Scott and I have] been friends for 30 years. We’ve been having an ongoing fight since the moment we met. And there is no way that you can ever explain the way you talk with someone where you just sort of go into meta-conversations and sarcasm and role playing.”

Once she learned that those e-mails had been leaked, Pascal revealed, “The first person I talked to was Angie.” And while she did not elaborate on their specific conversation, the Sony exec said, “I mean, yes, everybody understood because we all live in this weird thing together called Hollywood. If we all actually were nice, it wouldn’t work.”

Pascal also touched on celebrities’ neediness, saying of actors, “They are bottomless pits of need. You've never seen anything like it. But they are so great, because they are this magical thing that nobody else can be,” she added, speaking genuinely. “It’s a duality of both things. They are filled with this need to be loved and be great but that is because they are magical.”

At another point, Brown asked about e-mails that revealed that Sony paid some of its female actors less than the males—like Jennifer Lawrence, who was reportedly paid less than her American Hustle male co-stars including Jeremy Renner.

“Here’s the problem,” Pascal answered. “I run a business. People want to work for less money, I pay them less money. I don’t call them up and say, “Can I give you some more [money]?” . . . The truth is that what women have to do is not work for less money. People shouldn’t be so grateful for jobs. People should know what they’re worth. Women shouldn’t take less. ‘Stop, you don’t need the job that bad.’” Although the comment is not shown in the below video of the discussion, Recode reports that Pascal said, “I’ve paid [Lawrence] a lot more money since then, I promise you.”

Throughout this nightmare of an ordeal, Pascal said that she has definitely learned one major lesson: “You should always say exactly what you think directly to people all the time.”